I think this team is suffering from a few major problems:
this isn't a bad football team. I think they are better than the team last year, but the team last year was also more experienced and mentally tougher.
Not sure how you fix these things (at least 1 & 2, maybe Freeze can reorient himself, I dunno) midseason. They lost their chance to make hay early in the year and now the schedule gets even harder over the next 3 games. Maybe they see the light over the bye week and can surprise Mizzou or UK, but I'm certainly not holding my breath.
- bad QB play.
- This is pretty obvious, I don't think I need elaborate here
- Lack of mental toughness/experience in big moments
- very few experienced upperclassmen on this team. we are prone to bad penalties at even worse times (this is tied to #3 as much as it is #2) and seem to shrink in big moments late in games.
- turnovers speak for themselves. turnover margin may be the most critical stat in high level football. you lose this stat, more often than not you are going to lose the game
- poor coaching decisions
- Freeze hasn't shown he can help this team overcome #2 right now.
- goal line play calling, end of half clock management, play calling thru middle of 4th that allowed OU time to regroup and comeback, indecision at QB (QBs haven't exactly helped him, but I don't think he's nailed the process either), and lack of commitment to the run game. Just to name a few.
this isn't a bad football team. I think they are better than the team last year, but the team last year was also more experienced and mentally tougher.
Not sure how you fix these things (at least 1 & 2, maybe Freeze can reorient himself, I dunno) midseason. They lost their chance to make hay early in the year and now the schedule gets even harder over the next 3 games. Maybe they see the light over the bye week and can surprise Mizzou or UK, but I'm certainly not holding my breath.
